Just as Arsenal were getting on a roll, just as meaning was being breathed into every fixture on the calendar, just as the shape of the season was being formed, international football got in the way. Which is not to say that I, like, for instance, a Scouser, have no time for international football – Germany in Euro ’96 still tops my list of football sorrows – but is to say that it’s really not reasonable for it to be taking place in November. This is the sporting equivalent of getting through the first twenty-five minutes of a film, to the point where the gun fight in Ferraris in down-town Tokyo at midnight is about to start and then having ITV cut to a fifteen minute news bulletin sandwiched by interminable ad-breaks.

Friendlies will always happen and it is of course essential that the qualifiers do, but they should either introduce a two week lull around Christmas to get this sorted or have things done an dusted long before now. The solution is actually incredibly simple too, and should benefit international football in the long-term.

Essentially, we need to stop being so polite to the teams that are, for want of a better word, crap. UEFA already had enough teams to take care of before it absorbed Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and what have you but now that it has, a fundamental change in the way qualifiers take place needs to take place. For all the colossal international sides in Europe, it’s also home to some of the true no-hopers and the pretence that Andorra, San Marino, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Faroes, Malta, Armenia and Moldova (and probably more) represent valid international competition serves no purpose.

I am aware that some of these sides scored points and even won games during the competition, but the majority of the time they go into porcupine mode: making as stout and prickly a defence as possible but essentially just curling up hoping not to get too much of a kicking. Would it not be better for them to be in a competition they had a chance of winning? While the World Cup and Euros are going on couldn’t they be taking part in a competition to decide who gets to the qualifiers. Playing to win and succeeding would do more for them than the interminable ‘privilege’ of being outclassed, and for the other teams, the prospect of facing a team of cloggers intent on eleven man defences and a bit of violence while the ref isn’t looking will be reduced significantly.

The other effect will be two less qualifiers for each team, with the playoffs either not happening or being conducted in September rather than now, as things get interesting.